2. did all my filing; making copies of selected cds to place in a different residence;

3. continued consolidation of items and culling unrepairable items;

4. identified worn furniture and computer equipment to be disposed of within the next month..

Interesting. That's nearly a description of what I've been doing, except I haven't actually found a VHS-to-DVD unit yet. We have numerous tapes (wedding, etc) that I want to convert to digital.

Did order another (third) holster from Crown; this one for the same M&P pistol as the first one, but with allowance for TLR-1 light on this one. Additionally ordered one set of their OWB adapters that lets you put the holster on & off without unthreading the belt. Will have to see how that works; like the idea but haven't used them yet.

Also completed a 5-day fast, Sunday thru Thursday. Numerous reasons; religious and personal discipline being the primaries. Was planning to do a 7-day (done it once before), but this time 5 was all I could do. With the increased load at work and the winter storm we had on Tuesday, without food I got gradually colder & colder, and by Thursday I just couldn't get warm no matter what I did. Finally ate dinner (green beans & rice mostly) on Thursday night and almost immediately was better. Lesson learned - cold weather requires more nourishment. Already knew it intellectually, but now have had it driven home viscerally; a much more lasting way to learn.

__________________
"The best a man can hope for is a chance to prove that the good lord didn't make a mistake putting him here in the first place." - Will Sonnett

Bought a generator (3000 Watts) and a Lyman T-Mag II press.
Did my twice a year check on the GHBs & BOBs.
Bought some 12 ge 00 buck and slugs.

Don't know if this counts, but the wife and I decided to buy a house from my parents and move out of our crappy neighborhood to a much better (although still sub-urban Detroit) city. We will be landlords, renting out our current house. My wife plans to parley this and (eventually) the new house into a rental empire that will fund our homestead property.

I don't know if we'll ever be able to make a lot of money on rentals, but I am happy that my wife is on-board and has a vision.

__________________
There are basically two kinds of people in this world. Those that believe in the Moon Landing and those that don't.

Don't know if this counts, but the wife and I decided to buy a house from my parents and move out of our crappy neighborhood to a much better (although still sub-urban Detroit) city. We will be landlords, renting out our current house. My wife plans to parley this and (eventually) the new house into a rental empire that will fund our homestead property.

I don't know if we'll ever be able to make a lot of money on rentals, but I am happy that my wife is on-board and has a vision.

I think this absolutely counts.

As for me I bought a mossberg 715, a few extra magazines, 500 rounds of high-end 22 and a new case.

Thanks, we feel really good about it. It was pretty much a done deal but the final confirmation came last week when I booked (I am a jailer at the city PD) a brother and sister arrested for selling heroin. They live half a block from us.

__________________
There are basically two kinds of people in this world. Those that believe in the Moon Landing and those that don't.

This week prep-wise was mostly gun-related junk. Sorted & put away some misc shooting stuff that had been left scattered around from the holidays, and finished tweaking a batch of 16 steel israeli AR magazines. Never used steel AR magazines before - they don't have the flex of the feed lips that an aluminum or polymer magazine has, and these were real tight to spec - they only fit & locked easily in two of three guns I tried them in. One gun (with a low-dollar model-1 upper) had issues with them, so I slightly filed down the mag-catch window about ten or twelve one-thousandths; after which they're fine in all three.

Also went thru my old "user" aluminum AR mags. They all got a disassembly and good cleaning both inside & out (which is where a good dishwasher really shines imo; just don't tell my wife ), and put magpul followers in the few that didn't have them already. Found one 30-rounder that needed chucking; but with a good internal cleaning was able to salvage a couple of 20's that I thought I'd have to toss but turned out to be ok. Even opened the last 'niw' GI mags I had that were still sealed up (some with mfg dates going back to 1984 ) and cleaned them up good & put magpul followers in them as well. After that, organized the storage of them - used GI, new unused GI, pmag, steel, etc.

Did also try a new model of gas can out of frustration; the justrite Type 1 five-gallon. Being the old round style, it's not as nice for storage as the rectangular military cans, but my wife says I'm more "uncle joe" than "GI Joe" anymore, and it at least does away with the aggravating eco-nazi nozzle crap that the new in-store plastic gas cans all seem to have nowadays. So far, the only downside is that they don't have a built-in nozzle, so a funnel is sometimes necessary. Other than that, they're pretty good, heavy-gauge steel that seem well-made so far.

They make another version that does have a ventilated flexible metal spout built in, but too rich for my blood at $80 apiece. These are half that.

__________________
"The best a man can hope for is a chance to prove that the good lord didn't make a mistake putting him here in the first place." - Will Sonnett

I did this with all of my home movies several years ago. At the time I was concerned that the magnetic impression on the VHS tapes would deteriorate and I would lose my home movies. Surprise, surprise. When I checked into the longevity of DVD's it appears they may not last as long as tapes. It's been a long time since I investigated this, but I haven't heard anything to the contrary. Most sources suggested buying quality blanks. I usually use TDK or Verbatim. I had 2 packs of Sony blank DVD's that were in individual jewel cases with 10 blisterpacked together. They sat on a shelf in my family room for 4 or 5 years. Always under ideal conditions. I was amazed when I decided to use one and found the silver layer peeling off like a poor paint job. Glad I never used them for anything important. Hang onto those old tapes, you may need to duplicate again

I did this with all of my home movies several years ago. At the time I was concerned that the magnetic impression on the VHS tapes would deteriorate and I would lose my home movies. Surprise, surprise. When I checked into the longevity of DVD's it appears they may not last as long as tapes. It's been a long time since I investigated this, but I haven't heard anything to the contrary. Most sources suggested buying quality blanks. I usually use TDK or Verbatim. I had 2 packs of Sony blank DVD's that were in individual jewel cases with 10 blisterpacked together. They sat on a shelf in my family room for 4 or 5 years. Always under ideal conditions. I was amazed when I decided to use one and found the silver layer peeling off like a poor paint job. Glad I never used them for anything important. Hang onto those old tapes, you may need to duplicate again

PS - some of my vhs tapes were 20+ years old when I copied them.

Instead of transferring to DVD, put them into the digital movie format of your choice on your computer's hard drive. Then put them on a spare hard drive for safekeeping. Burn them to DVD to watch.

Traded my g17 towards a glock 21. It is for my hopeful return to being a reserve deputy. The g21 came with 6 magazines and a laser grip. It is still on layaway till I can pay it off. Also maid progress towards my debt reduction plan, only one more month and my next to biggest debt is done. Should be mostly done later this month, depending on the how the fees and penalties are calculated I could still owe maybe a hundred or so next month.

Been taking the reserve police course again. So I have been taking a class for about 3-4 weeks now. Getting back in the grove of shooting and having a better mindset.

Money is basically spoken for this month, so no major prep purchases. But next month I may work on my storage a little. Also increased my tools a good bit last month. So I think I have had a productive year so far. Figure out a plan to do some improvements on my daily driver and keep it instead of getting a new vehicle with payments. I figure for 2-300 or maybe as much as 500 dollars in parts I can really put some new life into the car. So that counts as a prep because it has a such a large influence on my debt.